Jagielka: Everton can cope

20 December 2012 01:17

Everton defender Phil Jagielka says there will be no injury and suspension excuses from their squad over Christmas.

The Goodison Park club head into the busy Festive period down to the bare bones with Kevin Mirallas, Victor Anichebe and Tony Hibbert on the sidelines through injury.
Their absences made Marouane Fellaini's retroactive red card against Stoke all the more foolish, but Jagielka says Everton are used to working with a small squad and will not let that become a distraction.

"It's not like we have had massive squads in the past, it is par for the course that we have 16-18 senior players," he told the Liverpool Echo.

"It will test our squad because it is always a busy time but the manager knows what he is doing and if someone needs rest then I'm sure they'll get it.

"We just have to get some much-needed points to keep us at the top of the league.

"We don't want to be looking too far ahead - we normally have a good second half to the season but that is not a guarantee.

"The manager will be nervous now because this is where our season normally starts. It would be nice to put two parts of the season together rather than just one."